Poll: Obama leading in swing states, with few “undecided” voters

President Barack Obama is leading Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of several battleground states . The poll includes results from two swing states, Florida and Virginia, with a significant amount of Latino voters. Voters in these swing states favored Obama over Romney 49 to 44 percent.

“You’d rather be in Obama’s shoes than Romney’s in these three critical states,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, as reported by NBC News. The poll found over 80 percent of likely voters said they had already decided who they would vote for, and between 5 and 6 percent said they were undecided. Miringoff added, however, that Obama’s lead was not insurmountable.

What’s particularly striking about these polls, Miringoff observes, is how most voters in these battleground states have already made up their minds, with just 5 to 6 percent saying they’re undecided, and with more than 80 percent signaling that they strongly support their candidate.

In the Florida poll, 20 percent of the registered voters who were interviewed identified themselves as Hispanic, as well as 17 percent of likely voters. In the poll of registered Virginia voters, 7 percent identified themselves as Hispanic, as well as 6 percent of likely voters.

In both of these states, the poll shows Obama and Romney are basically tied among likely voters when they were asked which candidate would do a better job handling the economy. But when asked who would do a better job handling foreign policy, Virginia voters gave Obama the lead over Romney, 50 to 39. In Florida, 51 percent of voters said Obama would do a better job on foreign policy while 41 percent said Romney.

The NBC News/WSJ/Marist poll also interviewed Ohio voters, a crucial battleground state. Of the likely as well as registered voters polled, 2 percent identified themselves as Latino. In Ohio, Obama is leading Romney 50 to 43 percent.